Eagles - Busy Being Fabulous

If you’ve never read Mick Wall’s rip-roaring Eagles biography, Eagles: Dark Desert Highway, I suggest you do so at your earliest convenience. It’s a start to finish white knuckle ride through the tour de force that was the first act for one of the most prolific bands ever to exist.

Love or hate them, Eagles were a genre-shaping giant of popular music in the 70s. Did it all go to shit because their egos were incapable of bending? Absolutely. But that’s not exactly an uncommon narrative for rock bands, and it doesn’t change the fact that Don Henley and Glenn Frey wrote some of the greatest music of all time.

Sure, I could have chosen ‘Hotel California’ here. But while I do feel it to be one of the most underappreciated songs ever, you all know it. And it represents a period of the band’s supremacy. What I’m always more interested in is what bands do after the shit hits the fan. It’s from that fallout that you get solo careers, new bands and different music.

My favourite Eagles song of all time is ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’. Which may strike you as odd considering it was written by Paul Carrack et al., and is sung by Timothy B. Schmidt, who replaced Randy Meisner after hell froze over – so to speak. I guess that’s a comment on my relationship with music. While I’m always interested to know who wrote or produced a song, I’ve never been one to obsess over who did what. There are Blink-182 purists who still argue that anything made without Tom Delonge isn’t really Blink. Yet, ‘Blame It On My Youth’ is probably in my top 5 favourite Blink 182 tracks. I’ve never understood why anyone would deny themselves the opportunity to enjoy a good song.

Which leads me to the title track of this post. The Long Road Out Of Eden was the Eagles seventh studio album, released in 2007. The line-up was one of the smallest in the band’s history: Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt. I’ll ruffle some feathers here, but for me, it’s their best line-up. Which is not to say that the album is any kind of masterpiece. But this song is an absolute ripper.

No doubt there’s those who’d discount it as just album-filling boppy schmaltz. I say it’s a wonderfully crafted old-time rock ‘n’ roll song. Whilst there’s nothing to suggest this might be true – it’s nice to imagine it as somewhat autobiographical. Although, these guys are notorious for doing a lot less of that than other songwriters. They’ve always been the distanced storytellers. In this one we meet a guy whose wife is so preoccupied with being a socialite, she neglects her roles as a wife and even mother.

In the words of Henley, musically, it sounds like something the Stones could have done. I’d say it sounds more like original rock n roll. Something Buddy Holly and Jimmy Gilmer could have made. There’s even a bit of a Doo Wop or Bubblegum vibe. For all that, it still retains the trademark Eagles country rock sound. Overall it’s fun and it doesn’t take itself too seriously – which is a rare find in modern music.

And while I love the sound, it also has a less tangible attraction. Most of these guys were pushing 60 in 2007. So to still be making music of this quality, even after all the shit they’d endured, is something to be celebrated. And they ooze cool in the music video. Ain’t no way I’m gonna look that cool at 60.